Improvement in methods of knitting stockings and joining selvages



D. 4BICKFORD.

limprovement in Methods of Knitting Stockings and- Joining Seivages.

Patented sep. 17,1872.

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DANA BICKFORD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENTIN METHODS 0F KNITTING STOCKINGS AND JOINING SELVAGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 131,358, dated September 17, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANA BICKFORD, of the city, county, and State ofN ew York, have invented a novel Method of Knitting a Stockin gby Machinery, an improved stocking ma'de by such method, and anovel method of seaming or uniting a made selvage to a selvage under process of being made 5 and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawing which accompanies and forms part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

In practicing my present invention I employ a rotary machine of the class known as the Bickford family knitting-machine, having a circular needle-cylinder with a circular series of vertically-reciprocating needles, and with provision for removing or putting out of action at will any of the needles, and also provision for instantly reversing the machine, and knitting back and forth when vdesiring to knit a llat web. The most efficient form of such machine at present known to me for fabricating the stocking herein claimed, and for uniting a knitted goods without the need of cutting or raveling it, or of removing it from the machine, with a portion being knitted, as also herein claimed, is one for which I have iiled an application for a patent on March 19, 1872, and in which each needle may be individually instantly pulled up out of reach of Y the action of the cam, and held up in such elevated and inactive position by the mere stress or force of its own loop.

I will rst describe the successive steps in knitting my improved stocking. Supposing the cylinder to have a hundred needles in all,

' I first set up the work upon all the needlesand pretty tight, if avery close selvage is wanted-then knit (for a fair-sized stocking) from, say, one hundred to one hundred and forty times around before narrowing; or, as a general rule, knit tubular as many rows as there are needles in the machine. Then remove two needles from the machine, put up the back cam, (the forward one being already up,) and place the pin used for reversing in the hole'about four spaces to the rear of the last needle of the series. (This is in order to be sure of delivering yarn to this last needle "the cams; then reverse -and knit when the pin shifts the carrier.) After knit ting about half wayaround toward the right,

stop the carriage and pull up out of action, by hand or otherwise, several (say twenty-two) needles to the right of the open space left by the two needles removed, as above statedthat is, in the same direction from it as the direction of movement of the carrier. twenty-two lifted needlesoccupy a space about equal to that occupied by the cams, the latter having been stopped at a position about opposite the operator, and so standing at this stage of the operation. These needles are lifted so that the cams shall pass under them so that they shall not knit. Now proceed with the knitting until the thread-carrier is stopped by the pin and the cams have passed, s0 as to leave the carrier in position to be in advance of them upon reversing. This brings the cams beneath the lifted twenty-two needles, which, if not so lifted, would discharge the loop already on them, inasmuch as the carrier has been prevented deliveringany more yarn to them. In other words, the lifted needles give a range of motion for the cams in excess of the range of knitting required, equal to the breadth of partially4 around. Now, and in the same manner and for the same purpose, lift twenty-two needles on the other side of the gap, or open space, and at the same time put down the twentytwo previously up, as they are now required for use in knitting. Next, move the pin to the ,opposite side of the gap four spaces from the other first needle, and continue to knit in the v reverse direction, Athe last twenty-two lifted needles not, of course, now knitting. Gontinue this -for about half a dozen courses, and before taking a needle out for narrowing, carry the cam (as usual in all 'such work) around to the side opposite the operator, so that the needle can be taken out on the side near the operator. Now commence to narrow at the point a by taking out the fourth needle to the right of the gap (the gap being near the operator) and move up the other three needles with their loops and take out and move up needles in the same manner also on the other side of the gap, the loop ofwww the needle removed being placed on the needlenext to it. This makes a perfect selvage These knitting may proceed as without leaving as customary an unsightly opening at each narrowing. Two needles less (1i. e., twenty) may now be lifted at each end of the series, two having been removed, and the before, knitting six times between the narrowings. Then to narrow, take out, as before, one needle on each side, transferring its loop, and move the three end needles up and knit, say five times before narrowing. To narrow more abruptly, take up two needles on each side and knit lfewer courses between. When twelve needles have been taken out the pin need no longer be shifted, because the carrier is now allowed space enough to pass the last needle and deliver yarn to it without actuating the first needle on the other side of the gap. When eighteen (of the one hundred) needles have been removed, put in the other pin the same distance from oneV end of the range of needles as the other pin is from the other end.

When the narrowing has proceeded so far that the cam will not actuate any needles not needed for knitting, (at the opposite end of the series of needles,) so as to discharge their loop, then no more needles need be lifted. This leaves about twenty needles out. Continue to narrow until, say, twenty-six needles are out, and then knit from the point b to c thirty-six rows for the ankle, without narrowing. The seventy-four needles now remaining I divide, as nearly as may be, into four equal parts, so as to determine the point (via, at e) from which to each end of the series the loops (which are to be afterward connected to the heel part) are to be removed from the needles, and the latter, except the three on each side nearest the point e, are to be removed. Next put the pins in proper position to knit back and forth on all the remaining needles, except the end three on each side, which are to be used in making a gore, as presently described, and proceed with the knitting on, say, thirty-four needles, and knit a strip for the top of the foot, (the portion of the web taken off as above hanging down inside the cylinder,) until the point is reached where the toe is to be formed. Now narrow by drawing up a needle, first on one side and then on the other, down sufficiently, and then widen (conversely) by pressing down a needle first on one side and then on the other, taking care to lift the yarn over the back of the needle just brought into service this process continued until reaching the point where the narrowing of the toe was begun completes the toe. Nowrknit a flat web of sixty rows of the same length as the top, to form the bottom of the foot. The sole or bottom, however, is connected to the already-knitted top on the machine by throw- -mg an edge-loop of the top or knitted web at each coursepf the knitting of the sole over the last needle of each row of the sole being knitted. Thus knitting in and interlocking row after row, a made stitch with a stitch being made makes the union or seam firm and comuntil narrowed,

plete, as shown in the drawing. Just before finishing the sole and commencing the bottom of the heels the last few rows of the sole must be knitted wider, in order to make the gore shown at d. The object of the gore is to make a better-fitting instep, and, incidentally, to get a hollow for the hollow of the foot. It may be made without this gore by simply making the top with one half the needles used for' the ankle, instead of with, say, less, as above described. Now narrow and Widen to make the heel in the same way as in forming the toe. The heel being finished, it remains only to connect the disconnected parts. The back of the leg and the uniting of the bottom of the leg on the line c e with the heel must be done by hand, with a needle, and the stocking is a perfect one. with finished selvage top, and no holes left in the narrowing process.

As a formula, in brief, to serve merely as a general guide to inexperienced persons, the following is given: For a one-hundred-needle stocking, knit one hundred times around narrow two needles; knit six times between; again narrow two needles, and knit six times between. Narrow to the extent of vfourteen needles, and knit ve rows after each narrowing; then narrow to the extent of eight needles and knit four rows between. This leaves out twenty-six needles. Now knit thirty-six rows for the ankle; drop off twenty needles on each side, forty in all, for the heel; knit sixtysix rows for the top of the foot with thirtyfour needles; narrow up to ten needles and then widen again for the toe; knit sixty rows for the sole of the foot; put in six needles and form the gore, which makes 'sixty-six rows; narrow up to twelve needles, and then widen again for the heel.

The method described of rapidly widening and narrowing by lifting and holding needles up out of action, and putting them instantly back into action by simply pushing them down again, taken in connection with my mode of connecting together in the process of knitting, (and without any separate binding yarn, or any seaming devices other than the needles,)

the edge stitches being knitted with the edge v stitches of the already-knitted fabric, enables me to make on.my small circular machines webs of any desired breadth or dimensions, whether flat or tubular, and gored or' not, such as skirts, dresses, table-covers, carpets, bedspreads, and, in fact, fabrics of almost every conceivable size or shape; also,hosiery, drawers, shirts, and garments having tubular parts of much larger diameter than the needle-cylinder, the seam or line of junction being perfect and almost homogeneous in texture with the remainder of the fabric.

after-knitted fabric is to be united; and without cutting or raveling such first-knitted fabric to secure 'a complete set of edge-loops, and without remounting upon the needles the knit- It also enablesV me to do all this without removing from the i., machine the first-knitted fabric, to which the ted goods; and it further enables me to make the entire seemed goods,

including its seam,

from a single unbroken yarn.

Claims. 1. I claim the described method of uniting in circular-knittin g machines the selvage stitches of flat fabric'previously knitted therein, and

Without cutting, ravelin g, or removing the fabric from the machine,

to the successive selva'ge stitches of dat goods being knitted, and a11,if desired, from one continuous yarn.

2. I claim the method described of knitting a stocking in e circular-knitting machine.

3. I claim a machine-knitted stocking made as described.

DANA BIOKFORD. Witnesses:

WILLLAM Firon, J ARVIs MOULDEN. 

